In response to the UK’s growing housing crisis, the government has pledged to build 1.5m new homes by 2029, equating to around 370,000 per year. But how can digital technologies help housebuilders to meet this target, all while simultaneously satisfying Part L of the Building Regulations, the Future Homes Standard and Building Safety Act? Ben Wallbank, digital construction and partnership manager at Trimble, discusses this in more detail
The target of 1.5m new homes by 2029 is undeniably ambitious, especially considering that 234,000 new homes were built in 2022-23, with a steep drop to around 150,000 in 2023-24.
For context, the most productive year on record for the housebuilding sector was 1968, with 352,540 new homes constructed. This only highlights the challenges housebuilders are facing in meeting current targets.
Clearly, the industry must embrace modern and innovation processes to boost productivity and efficiency levels on-site.
New standards are also posing additional challenges for housebuilders to meet – such as the Future Homes Standard and amendments to Part L of the Building Regulations, focused on enhancing the energy efficiency of new build properties.
Alongside this, the Building Safety Act introduces a stricter regulatory framework for designing and constructing higher-risk buildings.
These evolving requirements may explain why many housebuilders are struggling to reach the required volumes.
Adopting Modern Methods of Construction
Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) – including offsite, standardised designs and a platform approach – are recognised for their ability to deliver high production efficiencies, quality control and traceability.
However, leveraging data and digital technologies can help to streamline these processes even further, facilitating the digital transformation that the housebuilding industry so urgently needs.
The power of data
As well as feeding into a more standardised design approach and providing valuable insight into lessons learned for future projects, data is at the heart of traceability, compliance and building safety. Having this golden thread of data is pivotal to understanding a building, the materials that went into its construction and the steps required to keep both the structure and its occupants safe.
Traditionally, this data may have been stored on paper, on various servers or a generic, shared drive. However, using a centralised, digital hub can make this whole process far more efficient, providing secure and convenient access to the right people at the right time.
Collaboration is key
Maximising the benefits of digital technology requires effective collaboration, both on an individual team level and across the broader construction industry. A more unified approach allows all parties to learn collectively, applying insights gained, lessons learned and accurate data to improve future projects.
While a Common Data Environment (CDE) can help facilitate this, true success depends on all stakeholders embracing this mindset. Greater data availability can lead to more accurate reporting and, in turn, better decision making.
Industry insights on digital technologies for housebuilders
In a survey conducted by Housing Today and Trimble, the majority of respondents didn’t believe their companies were maximising the use of technology, either for general project management, demonstrating compliance with Part L or implementing an accurate audit trail. Alarmingly, some responders admitted that their company is still using paper-based systems.
All of this is clearly at odds with the fact that most recognised the valuable role digital technology will play in their future business plans, with 65% agreeing that this digital and traceable trail of information would improve accountability, safety and standards.
Interestingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, culture and supply chain collaboration were deemed as the two main obstacles preventing firms from implementing and managing an accurate audit trail, with buy-in required throughout the supply chain for the golden thread to be correctly and efficiently maintained.
Conclusion
It’s imperative that housebuilders are engaging with digital technologies, if they are to meet the ambitious targets set by the government.
A concern already raised has been how the construction industry can effectively demonstrate compliance without impacting on wider productivity and efficiency levels.
By ditching out-dated paper-based methods and instead maximising the use of technology, common data environments and digital information management systems, housebuilders can streamline the compliance process, minimising the time spent on documentation and reporting.
Trimble Viewpoint
Trimble Viewpoint Field View and Viewpoint for Projects are great examples of this digital information system in action.
A tablet and mobile-based field tool, Viewpoint Field View is designed to replace pen and paper in the field for snagging, forms and permits, project delivery and handover. With the ability to create custom tasks, forms and processes, and the traceable project data safely stored in the cloud for future reference, Field View offers enhanced productivity and complete visibility at every step.
While Viewpoint for Projects is a construction document management system that works to simplify project documentation, allowing teams to share, control and collaborate on documents and drawings with full revision control. Create custom workflows to progress construction documents through review, revision and approval, with complete audit trails and traceability.
“I can’t see any reason, no matter what scale of project, why a house builder wouldn’t be using Field View.” – Project director at St George.
“Recently we’ve used Field View more for compliance. Following the Grenfell disaster, we work on high-risk buildings and there’s a requirement for us to demonstrate that what we put in is right and we use Field View to capture photographs and the compliance of what we’ve installed on-site.” – Michael Green, managing director, Red Systems.
“The workflows, version control and audit trails are all very important features for us from a compliance perspective. It’s all about ensuring we have the right documents exactly where they need to be – a complete record of the project in one place.” – Beth McMorrow, business quality manager at McConnell.
Find out more about Trimble and its site management solutions here.
*Please note that this is a commercial profile.
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